Paper short abstract:

We analyse patron-client relationships in rural Punjab to argue that clientelism is not simply a negotiated relationship between two groups of unequal power, but one that is based on obligations and embedded exchanges that voters have come to interpret as helplessness, or "majboori".

Paper long abstract:

What defines voting behaviour and determines electoral wins in rural Punjab? According to voters in its villages it is "majboori ki siyasat", or the politics of helplessness. In this paper we cast the politics of majboori as the local manifestation of clientelism. Using the case study of six villages in one district of central Punjab, we trace and disaggregate the nature of clientelistic exchanges in rural Pakistan and realize that the picture that emerges directly counters the notion of clientelism as a purely strategic, negotiated deal. While the patron-client relationship in this case maintains elements of negotiations and bargaining, these are not free of an added sense of obligations and of socially embedded exchanges that constrain the political behaviour of rural citizens. We argue in this paper that clientelism in rural Punjab is not simply a negotiated relationship between two groups of unequal power, but rather one that binds voters in exchanges that they come to interpret as helplessness. Such exchanges emanate from a variety of sources, including the nature of social relationships, the particular evolution of historical institutions, and the nature of public service delivery. Together these create the discourse of majboori that reproduces, and perhaps even legitimises, Punjab's patron-client politics.